uhhhhhhhhh this book is kinda like if you gave a person with a weird, weird (the only word I have is weird, if not weird then perhaps, quirky? but I hate that for everyone, especially me) brain the gift of langauge—& the gift of language, miranda july has; her sentence construction is gorgeous & in many instances hypnotic. wish she'd utilised that gift to write something entirely different. maybe just a taste thing but I just found this extremely strange in a manic-pixie-dream-white!-girl way. thoroughly unsatisfying

a lovely book, some of the stories icked me out but thats what i love about miranda july is her ability to both ick me out and draw me in

die längeren kurzgeschichten waren in der regel die starken, einige der kurzen wirkten etwas forciert & zu komisch für meinen geschmack. am besten gefiel mir „how to tell stories to children“. lesenswert, aber hat mich nicht umgehauen.

(REREAD) ok miranda july paved the way for quirky girls by hopping straight to WEIRD AF. every short story had an ecosystem of its own. will be thinking about it for a long time.

interesting, incredibly weird; I liked it

4.5 stars

Smart, funny, sad, creepy, quirky stories about people and relationships. Miranda July is perfect. Genius.

With the exception of a few stories ("The Moves", "This Person"), this book was enthralling and wonderful. Particular standouts: "Something That Needs Nothing", "Ten True Things", and "How To Tell Stories to Children".

So good and odd and quirky. I wish some just didn't end randomly sometimes. Some of the longer ones and the ones involving wlw relationships were especially amazing and 10 true things >>>

didn't like it.

Every line is -- just so damn good.

This felt like Ayn Rand on crack - which was super fun! This collection of stories was extremely bizarre in a good way, as it packed a great dose of raw humanity, of crude erotism in every line. The extreme sense of normality in some of the stories evoked the poetic in the misery of everyday life, and made me understand the various characters in their complexity and not just for the role they were serving in the respective story. This is a 4 star for me nonetheless, since there were a couple of stories (such as Majesty or The Shared Patio) that really did not make much sense to me. I thought they were a bit exaggerated and not at all impactful, rather just showcasing some hipster type of literary segment for the sake of it (which I am not a fan of). Otherwise, I especially recommend the stories called ‘The Man on the Stairs’, ‘Something that Needs Nothing’ (which tbh should just be expanded into a book), and ‘How to Tell Stories to Children’. If you want to read this do make sure you’re in the mood to explore the collection, since it doesn’t make much of an impact unless you immerse yourself in it and read between the lines.

wow what a fever dream

The author has a nice way with words and keeps up a good flow. The stories were witty and entertaining, however the strong erotic undertone and explicit sexual descriptions felt unnecessary for me. Possibly this was just not my taste, but I’d be intrigued to read a novel by this author.

This took me by surprise, I thought "Me, You, and Everyone We Know," was nice, but did not expect this. This is dark and sad and twisted and really really interesting.

She writes like a less-happy, less-witty Diablo Cody.

I adored these. They were delightful, weird, uncomfortable at times, and surprisingly compassionate and insightful all at once. Love love loved it. Miranda July is a gem.

Beautiful and startling stories.

Tough book to review. It started out great and me and the book were deeply deeply in love. we touched each other often but as time went on a cancer--in the form of a redundancy of energy, and an unwavering monotone of cutesy quirkiness--grew between us and it was all I could do to crawl into bed with her anymore. then i cut my hair. then i felt there was an alien in my chest and the alien was really apart of me, and we loved each other and so there was no room for her book anymore. then i realized there was no alien at all it was me all along, and i was alone. yes. really really alone. so I imagined having a great life. then i cut my hair. in reality though, i somehow pushed through the boredom and finished this weighty 200 page collection of short stories that often have some depth hidden in them, if you can tolerate her voice to get to them. half way through the book i knew we were not going to bff.